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Sifting through the ducks early evening today no sign of the putative female chestnut teal, last seen 12/10/18, but I was astonished to find the pictured bird, which I believe to be an immature drake chestnut teal.

There is a very good match for this bird in the photos on the chestnut teal page on nz birds online.

Scattered dark green feathering on head, densest on crown, warm chestnut breast, black tail with white patches at rear flanks. Dark folded tertiary roughly matching colour of upper tail. Similar size to grey teal and also similar wing pattern when seen in flight.

I think it looks good too. And it adds to the credentials of the possible female at the same site. I saw the first ever accepted Chestnut Teal in NZ and it looked like a watered down version of this rather convincing individual.

BUT.... I still think we need to tread carefully. Some of the features that were "good" for the female are absolutely absent from this bird. Take a look at the head shape of both?? And ducks do that interbreeding thing that just messes everything up.....